Spring is in the air and we have lots to look forward to. Here are just a few of the fun and exciting things we have in store...

Literacy

The highlight of our work this Spring has to be looking in detail at the wonderful novel, The Iron Man. The children will love the story and learning all about the mysterious Iron Man. Who is he? Where does he come from? The children will find out and produce lots of exciting writing along the way. The descriptions in the book are fantastic and will really help our stories. This book also gives us the opportunity to try writing a newspaper article which is a topic in itself and something we will look into further in more detail later in the term.

The main focus for us is to improve our writing and the children will spend a lot of time assessing and improving their own work and that of their peers. To help us with this we will be using a variety of starting points for our stories; videos, pictures or simply sentences.

In addition to our main topics, we will pay particular attention again to spelling, punctuation and grammar (SPaG). As such, there will be spelling homework each week to practice and learn. Please help your child by practising their spellings at home, ready for our tests the following week. This term we will continue our work with possessive apostrophes and fronted adverbials.

Numeracy

In numeracy this term,we have the excitement of trying out Big Maths, a new whole school initiative to help us improve fluency in numeracy. We will be having lots of mental maths challenges and at the end of each week, we will have a timed test. Please keep practising with your children at home...practise makes perfect!! Mathletics is great for this. Encourage your child to go onto the site and have a go at the different topics. Can they get their Silver and Gold certificates? Congratulations to those of you who already have but don't stop there. The world maths is a great place for the children to go and test themselves and increase their speed.

Our main topics this term are fractions, time, decimals and money. There are loads of opportunities to practise these outside the classroom. get into the habit of asking your child the time, this will help them so much in the classroom. In addition to these, times tables are a must and we will practise them daily in class, both in and out of the maths lesson. Again, there are fun songs on Mathletics which are great to help your child to learn.

Science

In Science we have the excitement of a Bright Sparks day. A whole day of learning about electricity with an expert from STEM Cumbria. They will show us how to make different circuits to light bulbs, sound a buzzer and start a motor. We begin with the question..Where does electricity come from? and end the day joining cells to create our own circuits. We will also be looking at the dangers associated with electricity in and around the home.

Later in the term, we will be looking at magnets and forces. The children will be learning about push and pull forces and investigating different uses for magnets including how to separate different materials.

RE

Using the Come and See materials, we will be looking at three main areas this term; Community, giving and receiving and self-discipline. We will start to understand the roles of different people within our community and see how their jobs enhance our lives, not just from the point of view of the Church but all those who care for others.

Looking at how and why our Church community comes together leads us onto our second topic about giving and receiving, especially in the context of mass. The children will have the opportunity to understand better the different parts of the mass and why they are celebrated. We will deepen our understanding of the different parts of the mass and try to create links between them and the Bible. We especially focus on the travels and teaching of the Apostles, especially the letters they wrote, for example St Paul's letter to the Corinthians.

Finally we look at self-discipline and how it should be part of our lives. Whilst it may be hard to complete, we look at the benefits and opportunities that arise for us as Christians around Lent. We look at how Christians prepare for Easter and the events that are celebrated.

PE

In PE we are working on our Quick Sticks Hockey skills which we first learned last years in Year 3. Focus will be on accurate passing and shooting as well as movement off the ball and our ability to find space.

Later in the term we will be having a go at creating our own circuits. What exercises will we devise for our classmates to follow?

In addition to PE, we will be trying to get fit with Year 5 and three times a week we will be running around the school. This really boosts our fitness and it is vital that the children have both their indoor and outdoor PE kits. PE is on a Monday and Thursday.

Topic work

Last but not least our topic this term is Ancient Egypt. Looking at this fascinating topic includes a days trip to Tullie House to meet TutanTullie and join in his journey to the after life. We will get to mummify him, including the children's favourite, pulling his brains out through his nose...charming!!!

This topic has lots of really fun things to do including looking at the excavation of the pyramids and loads of art work including writing and then painting our own names in hieroglyphics.

If you have any questions about how your child is getting on or about any of the topics we are looking at this term, please feel free to come and see me in class.